Sunday, January 04, 2009

Luddenden to Midgeley Moor

An afternoon walk today produced:
Apart from the common corvids,
15 Collared Doves in one tree
5 House Sparrows
7 Bullfinches together on edge of moor
Several single Grouse plus 3 together
2 Meadow Pipits a bit of a surprise
Starling
Robin
Wren
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Huge icicles - a fantastic display all round the edges of the quarry on the way up to the standing stone (Churn Milk Joan.)
Posted by at

3 comments:

Nick Carter said...

Hope you put some money on the top of Churn Milk Joan (and didn't pinch ours!). You did better than us for Bullfinches, we had five fly out of the little quarry at the top of Scotland. Just after we saw you we found a headless Snipe behind the Workhouse, very odd.

7:30 pm
David Sutcliffe said...

I have seen Bullfinch feeding on heather buds (or/and maybe seeds?) in Jan/Feb and even into March usually on the moor edge. One favourite place used to be down the steep hill where the road from Fly Flats meets the Oxenhope/Hebden Bridge road. Wonder if these were doing the same Steve?

11:30 pm
Steve Blacksmith said...

The Bullfinches were on the east edge of the moor, in some willows when I first heard and started seeing them, then flew over us down the hill, so didn't see what they were feeding on. It's interesting that they might eat heather as well as fruit tree buds.

There was a surprising amount of change on top of the stone, Nick.
Is that where you lighten your pockets? In the notice board on the east edge of the moor someone has put a Ted Hughes poem about Churn Milk Joan, suggesting an alternative name "Churn Milk Jaumb". (Which is like a jamb at the side of a door.) A farmer is supposed to have left milk there for villagers, who had some change to come.

7:06 pm

Post a Comment